.jpg)
This is aList of famines in China, part of the series oflists of disasters in China. Between 108 BC and 1911 AD, there were no fewer than 1,828 recordedfamines inChina, or once nearly every year in oneprovince or another. The famines varied in severity.[1][2]
| Name | Time | Region | Context | Estimated number of dead |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mid-Tang Famine | 714-719 | Natural disasters, including a locust plague in 716.Tang Emperor Xuanzong subsequently instituted mandatory granary supplies and set fixed prices on grain. | 400,000 to over 1 million. | |
| Xìngzhēn Disaster | 784-785 | Northern China | Devastating locust plague. | Millions dead or displaced.[3] |
| 873–884 | Drought, part of a broader climatic drying and cooling period, caused disastrous failures in crop harvest,[4] leading to famine and a peasant rebellion;Huang Chao captured capital | Tens of thousands face starvation. | ||
| Chinese famine of 1333-1337 | 1333–1337[5] | 6 million[6] | ||
| Hongxi famine | 1425 | |||
| Jingtai Slough | 1440-1455[7] | Zhejiang, Shanxi, Shaanxi, northern Jiangsu, Shandong | Cold conditions | |
| 1477-1487 | Flooding of theYellow River. | |||
| Hongzhi famine | 1494-1495 | Persistent drought, followed by flooding in northern China and the collapse of the Shandong dam. Worsened by climatic shifts in thenorthern hemisphere.[8] | ||
| 1526 | Beijing | |||
| 1543-1544 | Zhejiang | |||
| Wanli Slough I | 1586-1589 | Flooding followed by drought.[9] coinciding withLa Niña climate disruption | Most lethal famine of the 1500's | |
| Wanli Slough II | 1615-1619 | Drought, flood and sandstorms from deforestation. | ||
| Chongzhen drought | 1627–1644 | Beijing, southern Hebei, northern Henan, and western Shandong, along the Yellow, Wei, and Fen rivers in Shaanxi and theYangtze River delta. | One of the most severe droughts in Chinese history, leading to the collapse of theMing dynasty in 1644 | 2 million |
| Haizi famine | 1755– 1756 | Drought and flood | 70% of the poorer farmers ofRugao county[10] | |
| 1810– 1811 | Hebei | Flood | 11 million[11] | |
| The Great Jiaqing Famine in Yunnan | 1815– 1817 | Yunnan, with hunger in most of China | Microthermal climate disaster tied to theeruption of the Tambola volcano[12] | Tens to hundreds of thousands |
| 1846– 1851 | Hebei, Zhejiang and Hubei | Flood | 15 million (45 million population decrease, with unknown proportion emigrating)[11] | |
| 1857 | Flooding in Hubei and Shandong, combined with instability due to theTaiping Rebellion and Nian Rebellion. | 8 million | ||
| 1851–1873 | First Opium War, Treaty of Nanjing,[13]Nian Rebellion,Taiping Rebellion, flooding in 1863 and 1867, as well as drought. | 10–30 million people[14][15] | ||
| Northern Chinese Famine of 1876–79 | 1876– 1879 | MostlyShanxi (5.5 million dead), also inZhili (2.5 million),Henan (1 million),Shaanxi andShandong (0.5 million).[16] | Drought, decades of declining grain production relative to population size.[17] | 9.5 to 13 million[18] |
| Northern Chinese Famine of 1901 | 1901 | Shanxi, Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia | The drought from 1898-1901 led to a fear of famine, which was a leading cause ofBoxer Rebellion. The famine eventually came in Spring 1901.[19] | 0.2 million in Shanxi, the worst hit province. |
| Chinese famine of 1906–1907 | 1906-07 | northern Anhui, northern Jiangsu | 20 to 25 million[20] | |
| Chinese famine of 1920-1921 | 1920–1921 | Henan,Shandong,Shanxi,Shaanxi, southernZhili (Hebei) | 0.5 million[21] | |
| Chinese famine of 1928–30 | 1928–1930 | Northern China | Drought, wartime constraints, and inefficiency of relief[22] | 6 to 10 million[23] |
| Sichuan famine of 1936-37 | 1936-1937 | Sichuan, Henan and Gansu | Drought andcivil war. | 5 million in Sichuan,[24][25] up to 50 million displaced as 'famine refugees' |
| 1942–1943 famine | 1942–1943 | MainlyHenan | Second Sino-Japanese War | 0.7 to 1 million[26] |
| Great Chinese Famine | 1959–1961[27] | Half of the country, in particular Anhui (18% died), Chongqing (15% died), Sichuan (13% died), Guizhou (11% died), Hunan (8% died)[28] | Great Leap Forward, Floods, Droughts, Typhoons, Insect Invasion[29] | 15 to 55 million[30][28][31] |
In China, famines have been an ongoing problem for thousands of years. From theShang dynasty (16th–11th century BC) until the founding of modern China, chroniclers have regularly described recurring disasters. There have always been times and places where rains have failed, especially in the northwest of China, and this has led to famine.
It was the task of theEmperor of China to provide, as necessary, to famine areas and transport foods from other areas and to distribute them. The reputation of an emperor depended on how he succeeded. National famines occurred even when the drought areas were too large, especially when simultaneously larger areas of flooded rivers were over their banks and thus additionallycrop failures occurred, or when the central government did not have sufficient reserves. If an emperor could not prevent a famine, he lost prestige and legitimacy. It was said that he had lost theMandate of Heaven.
Qing China built an elaborate system designed to minimize famine deaths. The system was destroyed in theTaiping Rebellion of the 1850s.[32][33]
The authorities are assured that inShansi five millions and a half, inHonan one million, inShantung half a million, and inChili two millions and a half have perished, and there is unfortunately too much reason to believe that the enormous total of nine and a half millions is substantially correct.
In Gansu the estimated mortality was 2.5 to 3 million [...] In Shaanxi, out of a population of 13 million, an estimated 3 million died of hunger or disease
...1936 famine, the product of severe drought compounded by civil war, killed up to five million people in Sichuan and led to reports of widespread cannibalism.
A detailed survey organized by the Nationalist government in 1943 of the impact of the famine came up with a toll of 1,484,983, broken down by county. The official population registers of Henan show a net decline in population from 1942 to 1943 of one million people, or 3 per cent of the population. If we assume that the natural rate of increase in the population before the famine was 2 per cent, [...] Comparison with the diminution in the size of age cohorts born during the famine years suggests that the official Nationalist figure includes population loss through excess mortality and declined fertility migration, which leaves a famine death toll of well under 1 million.
| Major topics | |
|---|---|
| Society and population | |
| Publications | |
| Lists | |
Events and organizations |
|
| Related topics | |
